A/N: This story has been abandoned, but I had a couple extra chapters hanging around my computer that I thought I'd stick up just to have it all there. So yeah, these are it.

What If?

Chapter 7: Calm Before the Storm

Sarah raised a fire-coated hand, but otherwise didn't move from her prone position on her bed at Pixie and Kurt's arrival. A muffled "Hey," came from the closet where Kerrie was busy putting away her empty suitcase, unpacking finished.

"Hey Kerrie," Kurt said. "Have you finished unpacking already Sarah?"

Sarah sent bluebell-coloured flames shooting up from her hand toward the ceiling, toward but not touching. She contemplated the jet of flames for a second before turning her head to grin at Kurt. "Haven't even started yet."

"Me neither," Pixie agreed. She sat down on her bed and motioned that Kurt could do the same. He smiled and crouched down beside her, leaving his tail free.

"Do you know where Elizabeth's gone?" Pixie directed this question at Kerrie, who had just emerged from the closet.

Kerrie flopped down on her own bed. "She went to do laundry I think. Are you two done the tour of the school?"

"Nope, just taking a break. We've done the first floor and most of the second, but not the third or the grounds." Pixie leaned back on her elbows and looked over at Kurt. He was looking around the room with the almost universal expression of curiosity that comes on people's faces when they enter a room for the first time.

Pixie looked around too. The room she shared with her three closest friends was very mismatched, as were most of the dorm rooms at Mutant High. The bedspread she was sitting on could be either lime green or fade from light blue to dark blue. At the moment she had the lime green side up, and it matched the lime green pear-shaped throw pillow she had at the head of her bed.

As for the rest of the room, Kerrie's side was a veritable jungle. She had plants climbing the trellis' she'd nailed to the wall, or hanging down from baskets hooked to the ceiling. All the plants that did flower were, and the differently shaded blooms added a riot of colour.

She had actually gone so far as to climb her vines up her bedposts and across the netting she had in lieu of a canopy. So instead of a cloth canopy she had a living green one.

Every inch of her wall space that didn't have things growing on it had posters; ones she'd bought, ones she'd painted, even the little ones you get in magazines. The rest of the girls had a few, but not to the extent that Kerrie did.

Compared to Kerrie's space, the rest of the room was rather tame. Sarah and Elizabeth both had posters on their sections of wall, as did Pixie, but only two or three. As they had been gone for two weeks the room was clean, but that would soon change.

Pixie set her empty glass down on the night table where she would remember to take it back to the kitchen. Kurt saw this and offered to 'port them down, if that was allowed. "Of course it is. We go a little powers-crazy here, feel free to teleport where you want."

Once he'd reappeared in a cloud of blue smoke glass-less they continued. The third floor went pretty quickly; Pixie pointed out which room belonged to which teacher and showed him the library, which took up the entire end of the hallway.

It was a wonderful room, with row upon row of books just waiting to be read. Banks of state-of-the-art computers hummed quietly to themselves. A few students sat chatting at one of the big round tables, but the squishy sofas were unoccupied.

Understandably, Pixie wanted to stay there. To find a good book and curl up in one of the squishy sofas and read the hours away, but she had a job to do. She said as much to Kurt, who laughed.

Rather than going down two flights of stairs to get outside, Pixie opted to simply open one of the library's tall old-fashioned windows. Standing in front of it with her wings out but tucked along her back, she pointed. "See that big old oak tree there? I'll meet you there." Kurt nodded and disappeared in a flash of blue smoke. She climbed onto the windowsill and jumped, not fanning out her glorious wings until she was sure she'd cleared the window. She fell a few feet, but with a few strong beats she was rising. She arrowed toward Kurt, making her landing a little more showy than she had to, but what was the harm?

The pair strolled along the grass, basking in the sunlight. As they walked, Pixie pointed out various things; the pool, the basketball court, the stables. It was obvious to all that it took a lot of effort for Pixie to leave the stables. It was tied with the library as her favourite place.

Unbeknownst to the two, three pairs of eyes watched their progress from one of the second-floor windows. "She likes him," stated Elizabeth. Echion, who was incidentally a fourth pair of eyes trained on the two nodded his head in agreement from his place around Elizabeth's neck.

There was an evil glint in Sarah's eye. "Think we should help them along?" Shutting one eye she mimed squishing them together with her fingers.

The three shared an identical wicked smirk. If anyone had come upon them at this moment, one would think they had superhuman speed, so fast would be their retreat. The evil aura surrounding them was practically visible.

XXXXXXX

Pixie was snuggled deep into her blankets, enjoying a dream about Johnny Depp and whipped cream when she was rudely awakened by the snap of imploding air followed a second later by someone whipping off her covers.

Freezing, she bolted upright and glared at the blue smudge she assumed was Kurt. Technically, she was allowed to sleep in her contact lenses, but preferred not to, as they tended to make her eyes red. She groped blindly on her bedside table and found her glasses. Slipping them on, she looked around. It was Kurt, and he was currently trying to wrestle Sarah's blankets away from her. The fight was not going well.

"Kurt, what are you doing?" Taking a better stock of her surroundings Pixie exclaimed "It's barely even light out!" With a groan she flopped back down and curled into a little ball, trying to burrow under her pillows.

Finally Kurt just teleported Sarah's blankets away from her, and in doing so ended up near Pixie's bed. "What am I doing? It's the first day of school, aren't you excited?" A chorus of groans and negative expletives answered his question.

Sarah let out a surprised shriek. "It's six o'clock in the freaking morning! Kurt, give me back my blankets or I will burn you to cinders!" She lit up her hands to further persuade him glaring daggers at the blue-skinned mutant.

Elizabeth sighed from her bed. She still had her covers. "Kurt, no one's going to be up for at least half an hour, the sane one's an hour. Just, go back to bed or something."

He threw up his hands in exasperation. "Ach, fine." Gingerly he gave Sarah her blankets back, who almost forgot to put out her hands before she grabbed them possessively and wrapped herself up like a mummy.

Kurt approached Pixie with the same wary expression he'd approached Sarah with but she just accepted her blankets back with a sleepy "thanks" and pulled them up to her chin.

With one last look at the four cynical, sleep-deprived girls and a shake of his head, Kurt left, shutting the door softly behind him.

XXXXXXX

Three hours later Pixie was grinning to herself; he just looked so . . . cute. Ripping a piece of paper from her binder she scribbled a hasty note, which read "calm down will you? You're, like, vibrating. :)". The piece of paper was then crumpled up and tossed in the direction of the of the desk to her right.

It rolled to a stop right beside a blue-skinned hand. Kurt risked a furtive glance around the classroom before straightening out the paper and quickly reading the two lines on it. He grinned over at Pixie before writing a quick reply. He re-crumpled the paper and made another quick scan for the teacher before lobbing it back.

She had to smile at his actions. She read his reply of "can't help it" and her smile grew. Shifting her wings so they fit behind her chair better she leaned over toward Kurt. "You know, Ms. Monroe isn't even here yet, you don't have to check for her."

"Ja, I suppose. I'm just excited, I've never gone to a real school before." He glanced at the clock. "By the way, where is Fraulein Monroe? It does not seem like she would be late."

Sarah slid into the seat in front of Pixie. "She's not late, you guys are early. The bell doesn't ring for five minutes."

If you looked closely, you could see that Kurt's cheeks darkened a fraction with a blush. A sheepish grin on his face, he said, "As I was saying to Pixie, I guess I'm just excited."

Pixie smiled and shrugged. "It's the first day of school, you're allowed to be excited. I've always liked the first day myself, no homework usually. But, I'll bet you by the end of the week you'll have changed your tune."

"We'll see."

Taking a look around the slowly filling room, Pixie asked, "Hey Sarah, where's Kerrie and Elizabeth? They'd better get here soon, they've only got a few minutes."

Sarah shrugged. "Elizabeth's in our room doing girly things, and Kerrie wandered off. I'm not sure where she is."

At that moment Ms. Monroe walked in, a stack of papers in her arms. After setting them down on her desk she began watering her the many plants hanging around the room. Of course, being a mutant she didn't do it the conventional way. Instead, she conjured up a small rain cloud and moved it from plant to plant.

Just as the bell rang Kerrie and Elizabeth slid into their seats. Ms. Monroe turned from soaking her last plant to face the class. "Welcome to English."

XXXXXXX

The week passed quickly and with only one explosion, a record in the history of Mutant High. Friday night saw the girls and Kurt starting a movie in the rec room.

Kurt flopped down on the couch beside Pixie. "So much homework," he moaned. "What's wrong with the teachers?"

Pixie laughed. "Told you you'd change your mind about school. Anyways, it's not so bad, you should see how much we get the month before exams. Don't make plans to do anything then, you won't have time with all the homework you get."

He covered his ears. "I don't want to hear it!" After a few seconds he lowered his hands to stare at the television screen. "What's this?" He arranged himself more comfortably on the couch.

"Pirates of the Caribbean," Elizabeth answered from Pixie's other side. Plopping a large bowl in Pixie's lap she asked, "Popcorn?"

"Um, sure," Pixie said, echoed by Kurt as they settled in to watch the movie. As it progressed, Pixie found it harder and harder to keep her eyes open. She thought this was a little strange, as usually she was a total night owl, able to stay up to all hours of the night without feeling a thing. Oh well, she thought, maybe it's just my body trying to catch up on the sleep I missed during the week.

That decided, she moved the empty popcorn bowl onto the coffee table and snuggled closer to Kurt. He'd proved on the plane to be an excellent pillow, and she was going to take full advantage of that. Besides, she'd seen "Pirates" enough times to quote it so it didn't matter if she missed some.

She lay her head on his shoulder, and when he looked down at her questioningly her only explanation was "tired." He looked uncomfortable for a moment, then relaxed and draped an arm around her. She only snuggled closer.

Opening her eyes to watch a particularly funny part Pixie caught Kerrie's eye. The other girl raised her eyebrows in a you're-awfully-snuggly-with-him sort of gesture. Pixie shrugged and answered, "He's comfortable."

Kerrie responded with another raised eyebrow, this time obviously meaning 'okay . . ."

They settled back in, blissfully ignorant of the events which were about to unfold.